Guide to playing crappy next gen ports without a OC Haswell/killer GPU

[deathjester]

Making this guide after getting AC Unity to work well on a friends 8320 CPU/R9 270. You do NOT have to get a next gen console. Many of these ports are HORRIBLE and a rock solid 60 FPS is not possible and frame drops can make the game a nightmare to play on anything but an overclocked Haswell and a killer GPU, and even that can't get a locked 60 fps at times.

 

You may wonder why 30 FPS on a console seems "smooth" (and AC Unity would be an exception cus it couldn't keep close to 30 on a console), when 30 FPS on a PC seems horrible. This is not an argument over 60 FPS being better. It is better, and there is no excuse for these ports not to be well optimized for say AMD CPU's.

 

The reason 30 FPS "feels" smooth is frame pacing and syncing with the display. This can be replicated and done just as well on the PC (as long as your graphics settings can stay at 30 or above) and you will have less frame drops than a console as well. 

 

The key to this is to use Riva Statistics Tuner (which comes with utilities like MSI afterburner and which many of you already have) for the frame pacing and a 30 FPS Vsync.

 

Step 1: For AMD GPU users. You will need this utility to get a 30 FPS Vsync. Add the game where the arrow is shown in this picture. Under the games profile (not global) all you need to do is choose double vsync. Double vsync is under Tweaks on the right side of this picture. Right click apply on the new game you added. Double click it from now on to launch the game (it will popup and ask if you want to double click to launch games from now on and say yes).

 

http://www.radeonpro.info/download/

 

 

Nvidia GPU users. Much easier. Nvidia control panel add the game (don't use global). Go to vsync. Choose this.

 

 

Step 2. Riva Statistics Tuner. This program will do the frame pacing for you. Again you do not need to overclock to use this with MSI Afterburner. I see many people just limiting fps in Riva and thinking that will be smooth. This is not the case. A locked 45-50 in Riva Tuner not synced to the display will suck. You can test this in a game like Farcry 4 by strafing next to water and looking at reflections. A locked 50 in Riva tuner will be choppy looking at the reflections and seem crappy. A locked 30/synced will be smooth. A locked 60 or above is ideal, but that ain't happening in some of these new games on ANYTHING.

 

 

 

Hit the big plus. Add the game. Go to locked Frame limit type 30 and enter. Grats you are done. You will now have console "smoothness" as long as you can keep 30 FPS in a game. 

 

Hopefully this helps people with FX CPU's or non K Intel CPU's that can't do 60 but can do 30. Eventually low level API's should fix this, and these game devs should be ashamed, but until then, this may help.  Can also help people who may not have a GPU to do Ubersampling at close to 60 on say Witcher 2, but they can get 30. Other games perform much better as far as FPS swings and unlocked 50 can be smooth. AC Unity and Watch Dogs and Far Cry 4 sure as hell are not one of those titles.

[AlwaysFSX]

Ignore this, game was weird.

[deathjester]

Forgot to add also check Triple buffering option to Radeon Pro/Nvidia Control Panel . Why? Cus apparently I am stupid lol.

 

Anyways, this or disabling mips in Far Cry 4 is the only way to play it atm. I prefer higher AA/downsample to crappy graphics. This would be the ONLY way of playing AC Unity smooth, seeing a OC 4790k can't do it at this point. Prob same with Watch Dogs as well. 

[xboxonthego3]

I've been seeing some of the fixes you put out. I think putting it at 30 FPS is a good compromise. It is way more playable than having it stutter really bad everyone so often. Although I do see the difference between 60 FPS and 30 FPS. So hopefully Ubisoft will fix this microstutter that keeps occurring when I play at 60 FPS.

[Vedge]

Wouldn't a preferable solution be: wait for a couple patches and a price knockdown? With single player games I see very little reason playing at release

[Tacitus]

Wouldn't a preferable solution be: wait for a couple patches and a price knockdown? With single player games I see very little reason playing at release

 

This allows you to play today and then you can bump up settings/framerate as patches come out.

 

This thread is pretty informative. It would have been useful for me on my old machine; I struggled with constant screen tearing and FPS that fluctuated so badly that above 30fps was undesirable - it just meant my game looked choppy constantly the moment it came into a more difficult scenario.

[.spider.]

At least for Nvidia it is enough to change the setting to adaptive halve refresh rate in the controle panel.

No need for RivaTuner

[deathjester]

Bumped since I see people claiming they are going to move from their superior PC hardware that can play a game like Farcry 4 at 2-4x  MSAA/TXAA 30 FPS on their TV to a console, to a console that plays at medium low settings at 30 FPS.

 

The grass is not greener. The consoles can't even keep a locked 30 FPS on AC Unity or most of these games. They can dip into the teens. As crappy and sabotaged as Ubisoft's ports are? Still better on the PC.

 

A freakin 750ti/7850 will probably give you a better 30 FPS experience than a Xbox One/PS4.